Trump Lobs Insults at Pope Leo XIV Over Iran War and Mass Deportations

The dispute between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV escalated into a public, personal exchange as the Trump administration’s war in Iran and mass deportation efforts collided with the pontiff’s calls for peace and criticism of immigration policy.

“The pope spoke aboard the papal plane on his way to Angola”

ABC7 Chicago

CBS News described how Trump “has been lobbing insults” after Pope Leo criticized the administration’s mass deportation efforts, with the rupture framed as “an unusually pronounced rupture between the leaders of the world's most powerful country and the world's largest Christian denomination.”

ABC7 Chicago

CBS News also tied the escalation to “Operation Epic Fury,” saying that “with joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran” it “served as the catalyst for the ongoing exchange of words between Pope Leo and Mr. Trump.”

The day after the military operation began, the pontiff expressed “deep concern” and urged the warring parties to “stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” according to CBS News.

As the war continued, CBS News reported that Francis condemned Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization as “unacceptable” and urged citizens to “contact the authorities — political leaders, congressmen.”

In parallel, CBS News reported that Trump’s rhetoric escalated after a segment that highlighted the pontiff’s criticisms of mass deportations and the war with Iran, while a group of U.S.-based Catholic cardinals “skewered the war” and said it did not meet Catholic doctrine’s definition of a just war.

The feud also included Trump’s social media attacks, with CBS News quoting his Truth Social post calling Pope Leo “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

The CBS News account places the escalation in a sequence that begins with the pontiff’s early reaction to the Iran strikes and then moves into sharper exchanges as Trump and Pope Leo trade barbs.

CBS News said that “The day after the military operation began, the pontiff expressed

Al Jazeera

citations array must be at least 3 entries from different sources where possible.